Local churches (affiliation)
Christian movement started by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The local churches are a Christian group which was started in China in the 1920s and have spread globally. The basic organizing principle of the local churches is that there should be only one Christian church in each city,[1] a principle that was first articulated by Watchman Nee in a 1926 exposition of the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 1:11.[2] The local churches do not take a name, but some outsiders referred to the group as the "Little Flock" as they sang from a hymnal entitled Hymns for the Little Flock.[3]
The Local Church | |
---|---|
Classification | Christian |
Orientation | Nondenominational |
Polity | Congregationalist |
Associations | Living Stream Ministry |
Founder | Watchman Nee |
Origin | 1920s China |
From early on, members of this group emphasized a personal experience of Christ and the establishment of a pattern of church practice according to the New Testament.[4] Though assemblies identifying as "local churches" can be found worldwide, there are no definitive statistics available on membership, partly because the largest number of members are in China. Estimates range from five hundred thousand to two million members worldwide.[5][6]